“This is the first-ever colour film made entirely from emulsion to cassette at the HARMAN technology factory in Mobberley, a significant and incredibly exciting milestone. This quirky, experimental film produces high-contrast images with strong, visible grain and punchy, vibrant colours. It’s unlike any other colour film.” – HARMAN Photo Press Release
To further quote Harman, “Like the mythical Phoenix, this new film represents hope, rebirth, and transformation. It signals the start of a new legacy for HARMAN and the beginning of an exciting new chapter for one of the world’s largest photographic film manufacturers.”.
So who are Harman? Well they are the parent company of Ilford the famous makers of such B&W films as HP4, FP5, XP2, Pan F, Delta 400 and Delta 3200 which we all know and love and that are manufactured at Ilford's afore mentioned factory in Mobberley here in the UK. So why the excitement? Ah well, this an original, newly developed colour negative film not simply a rebranded, reprocessed/repackaged film typically from original Kodak stock being offered by most of the other 'off brand' alternatives out there. It's completely new and original!
So what else makes it different? Let's start with the basics, Phoenix is a 200 ISO daylight-balanced colour negative film designed for C41 processing designed to provide loads of grain and lurid colours. There is nothing of the pastels or subtle renderings here.
Unusually for a colour negative film it has a very limited exposure latitude of just +/-1 stop over/under the 200 ISO box speed so you will have to nail your exposures with this one. Also Harman say the film does best in bright light and sunny conditions.
The other big difference is the film is described as "experimental" which is a polite way of saying it is still under development and is being refined in the manufacturing process, so expected to see improvements in subsequent batches.
Finally HARMAN Phoenix 200, unlike more traditional colour negative films, does not have an orange mask. This can affect scanner response and some adjustments may be needed to achieve the best results. Thus they have provided guidance for settings for a number of different scanners.
For pro labs, some recommendations for best settings for Fuji and Noritsu lab scanning settings were developed by HARMANLab.com in conjunction with and support from The Darkroom.com, Analogue Wonderlab, SilverPan Film Lab and Blue Moon Camera and Machine.
Finally the film is competitively priced around the £13 mark for a 36 exposure 35mm roll. Thus I have ordered one out of the first batch out of pure curiosity and when it arrives will run it through my Contax G2 and then have it developed and scanned by Analogue Wonderlab. Afterwards, if I can be bothered, I might post some examples of the outcomes in a blog entry here.
Given all of this it remains very exciting to have, in this day and age, a newly developed from scratch colour negative film enter the market and one that is made here in UK to boot. I will follow its development with keen interest 😀.